The present invention relates to a liquid propellant cannon.
A prior art liquid propellant cannon is shown schematically in FIG. 5, and includes a propellant chamber 100 disposed between a projectile 101 and a breechblock 102. The propellant is loaded according to the known "bulk loading system". According to this system, the liquid propellant is filled directly into the propellant chamber 100, which is configured as a combustion chamber. However, the reaction is uncontrolled because the interfaces determining the combustion fluctuate greatly. The bulk loading system is often employed for liquid propellant cannons of a relatively small caliber, with it being necessary, however, to consider the drawback of strong gas pressure variations.
Another prior art liquid propellant cannon is shown schematically in FIGS. 6 and 7. After a starter charge 92 has been ignited, the liquid propellant is injected according to the regenerative piston system by a pump piston 103 from a pump or propellant chamber 104 into a separate combustion or gas chamber 105. The controlled supply of liquid propellant in the regenerative piston system results in uniform combustion in the gas chamber 105.
The drawback in the regenerative piston system is that the head of the pump piston 103 approximately corresponds to the diameter of propellant chamber 104 and thus constitutes a comparatively large mass. This mass must be moved and decelerated over a stroke which has the length of the pump chamber.